1) Shore's Edge:
a) Begin the beadwork on the beach panel.
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| Bead work has begun on the beach panel. |
I love beading. It takes me back to the days when I used to quilt by hand. The repetition is so soothing.
b) Baste the ocean panel and thread paint the seashells.
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| The ocean panel is basted and the seashells have been thread painted. |
2) Pictorial Painting Class:
a) Practice the painting techniques one more time.
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| Practiced painting the leaf from the Calla Lilly project. |
b) Start painting the Calla Lilly.
OK, so I missed one of my goals. Each practice piece has me more and more comfortable about how to blend and apply the paint to achieve what I want. They also show areas where I need more practice.
3) Leah Day assignments:
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| Express Your Love was marked, basted and the marked lines quilted. |
a) Mark the quilt.
b) Baste the quilt.
c) Quilt along the marked lines.
I wouldn't have thought it possible, but I could actually see well enough through the black fabric to trace the lines of Express Your Love.
I promised I would share tips this year. Here is one. I have taken to hand basting my quilts before machine quilting. Why? Although it is more time consuming, I believe it has three advantages. First, I find that the shifting between the top, batting and backing is less than when I pin baste. Second, without pinmoors or safety pins the quilt is more pliable for manipulating under the machine. Finally, I like the control I get since my hands rest on the quilt with no pin interference. I find it very easy to snip the hand basting as I come to it. Those odd turquoise threads, predominately on the left side of the quilt are the areas that are still basted.
I actually accomplished more on Express Your Love this week than I thought I might. I opted to thread paint my mantras in script. Leah Day, designer of the quilt, used block letters. I felt the curvilinear flow of the quilt suggest cursive and it also gave a more gentle, less dictatorial sense to words. The next step was to echo quilt the mantras. I opted for micro-stippling instead. Why? Once again I felt it softened the message.
My goals for the week ending January 18, 2013
1) Shore's Edge:
a) Add the beading to 14 more shells on the beach panel. I am under deadline pressure with this!
b) Machine quilt the ocean panel.
2) Pictorial Painting - paint the leaf for real. No more practicing!
3) Express Your Love - Do the echo/foundation stitching in the globe.
It looks really good so far. The micro stippling is giving it lots of color.
ReplyDeleteGreat job on making progress on so many goals! I especially like the calla lily leaf!
ReplyDeleteI love your work, and thank you for the tips.
ReplyDeleteLovely work, Gwyned. I also moved to hand-basting a while back and find that using a spray-baste before I do the hand-basting can really help with keeping the layers all together (particularly on larger quilts.) I'll look forward to seeing more of your work!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Quilter, Angela, LAQuilts and Christina for your comments. The thread I used for micro stippling my mantra was a Superior variegated from the King Tut series - heavy in the turquoise. I love turquoise and black together. Since it is both a mid value color and tint it helps give the piece sparkle.
ReplyDeleteQuilting is what I do. Not something that I squeeze in between jobs, other than running a home, so I can make reasonably good progress with my goals.
As for tips, I suppose mine fall into the opinion category. If there is a tip, it is that I explain the reasoning to my opinion. Ultimately we all have to experiment to figure out what works best.
The beads look great. I do not have the patience to do that, but it looks really good. : ) I like your leaf as well; I've started watching an online class but haven't got too far yet.
ReplyDeleteI'm intrigued by your hand basting pattern. Does it look a bit random because many threads were already snipped? I wonder if you basted in a grid originally or radially?
Great message on your quilt. I am loving that many of us are doing things differently. There is that much more to learn from each other.
I didn't think I had patience for beading either. However, the more I do it. The more I love it.
DeleteI use Sharon Shambur's method. Treadlemusic recommended her. You can see it on YouTube. Sharon started out in couture. This method is frequently used for basting in that industry.
It is fascinating to see the many ways we all attack the same project.
I love the effects the beads give, it really creates a totally different look. Amazing!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Marelize. That is one of the things I love about fiber art - one thing can make a dramatic difference. I think the beading helps "settle" the seashells on the beach. I'm rather partial to the glitter, too.
DeleteThank you for your advice about my tension issues. I was using a sharp, then switched to a top stitch needle using a thicker thread. This time I used a practice piece to play with the tension to get it right. I often skip this step because I'm so eager to get to the quilting and am sorry every time. I love all your works in progress.
ReplyDeleteYour are welcome. I think we are all guilty of not checking the tension after a thread change from time to time.
DeleteI love your quilt handwriting! It's beautiful!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Danielle. I wish my personal handwriting was a beautiful. I printed out my mantra using the Edwardian Script font in MS Word. I used the print out as reference when I free hand marked the quilt.
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